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Why does Pyke look like Bilgewater Ekko?

nelogis·5/15/2018, 8:09:37 AM·1 votes·2,595 views

I like the concept of an undead pirate, hunting those who betrayed him but he doesn't look like an undead even one bit to me.

Just some splash arts of undead characters we have right now:

https://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2015/10/10/817459/34d2a0bcaba93248a3f25846f79cc04d-375.jpg

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6-GfIenUFJA/VvXBLfUM70I/AAAAAAAA5PM/NwZSQD98NNsUlfY3of5gCy8aoHGreym-A/s1600/Karthus_Splash_0.jpg

http://www.gameplorer.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lol-thresh-splash-art.jpg

http://www.lol-wallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Classic-Sion-Splash-Art-Process-Art-7-League-of-Legends-Artwork-Wallpaper-lol.jpg

https://pre00.deviantart.net/7b64/th/pre/i/2013/021/8/b/mordekaiser_by_michalivan-d5s9q6h.jpg

Notice how they hardly can be called human? Some of them don't even have flesh on their bodies anymore and the guy that has it looks fucked up and scarred.

And now we have Pyke:

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/frFDNcMu7NT0BTA3lvtEGM9RfzQ=/1400x1050/filters:format(jpeg)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10837143/hero.jpg

Don't get me wrong, the art looks amazing but it doesn't feel like an undead to me. I even had to look twice before realizing he is under water. The only thing that makes him "undead" is the 5 scars he has and the blue cold glowing eyes.

Fact is, if nobody told me he is an undead I wouldn't have thought about it at all when looking at his splash.

This would be a really cool Bilgewater Ekko skin, just need to add a white Mohawk on him and done.

Why not make Pyke more worn out and actually an undead? For example let his skull look out from the right part of his face, then let him have rotten/regenerating flesh in the middle part and it goes to "normal" scarred flesh on the left side of his face. Then make it so the skull part would look right into your soul while the flesh eye screams revenge.

You could give him a demonic / grotesque mouth which only a worn out bandana / mask tries to cover.

Pieces of flesh would fall off around his limbs and you would see parts of his bones around these places, maybe even make it so some seaweed has clung onto his bones.

I just don't see the thirst for revenge or the rage in his eyes or his undead state when looking at that splash, it looks more like a Bilgewater head hunter that tries to look like a big guy.

It feels like this character could look like so much more, why are you afraid of making your characters more fucked up recently? Kai'sa was also a hot topic on this subject.

8 Comments

ITSamuel5/15/2018, 5:32:24 PM3 votes

He got the creepy mask that might have something behind it and his head seems to come out of a jaw, maybe resembling his origin story.

But sure, he is supposed to be a drowned person and could life up more to that description. Because in his concept arts he is shown in darkness or underwater, his skin looks different than in game, which I would prefer because I found it very intriguing the moment I saw it. It would also emphasize the fact that he drowned. While that is something to discuss over, and he still got his creepy eyes, a much more confusing part of his design is that his normal stance indeed has such a high resemblance to Ekko. -They both use a blade that stands out because of a turquoise glow. -Their knees are bend and there is distance between their feet (although Ekko leans more into his pose) -a red piece of cloth near their face adds an eye-catcher, and the red is complementary to the blade. -Pyke is bold, Ekkos hair is mostly cut short -Because of the Bones on Pyke, their clothes have a similar color pallet and shape. -They show equal amount of skin and share similar skin-colour

Sure I knew the champion of the front-page of the launcher must have been Pyke, but I also thought that I saw Ekko. Designers often talk about how good design shows when an object can be immediately assigned. The outline is important for this, which can be helped by clear forms. After that he color combination is important as well. As I said, Ekko and Pyke share very similar aspects of this. I find this weird, because people and Riot themselves talks about their focus on variation in champion design and the focus on differ between them. Pyke and Ekko of course can be identified as different champions, but it is almost as the designers for Pyke didn't keep track on already used assets during his development. In my Opinion, Pyke is similar enough, that the model could also resemble a new skin for Ekko

p a t r i o t5/15/2018, 8:31:09 AM1 votes

He is literally standing at a table with a bunch of drowned corpses tied down around him.

Really doesn't hold a candle to the undead fantasy of smashing the ground as Morde or doing some evil standing like Sion amirite.

Dark Saboteur5/15/2018, 8:51:13 PM1 votes

You can't have skulls or anything too grotesque for international games rated "Teen". Sorry you want it to be more "undead" but it just isn't good business sense for rito to do so. I do agree that he looked like an ekko skin though.